Tom Sylvester | |
---|---|
Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency for Operations | |
Assumed office June 2023 | |
President | Joe Biden Donald Trump |
Preceded by | David Marlowe |
Acting Director of the Central Intelligence Agency | |
In office January 20,2025 –January 23,2025 | |
President | Donald Trump |
Preceded by | Bill Burns |
Succeeded by | John Ratcliffe |
Thomas Sylvester Jr. is an American intelligence official serving as the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency for operations. He also served as the acting Director of the CIA from January 20 to January 23,2025.
Sylvester is the son of a Foreign Service officer,and he grew up overseas,attending junior high school in Norway. [1] He served as a United States Navy SEAL. [1] He later joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). [1] He is a veteran operations official for the CIA and served in several locations overseas,including in the Middle East. [1]
According to the CIA's podcast,The Langley Files,Sylvester "played a central role in CIA's efforts to help Ukraine defend itself as Russia’s full-scale invasion commenced" in 2022. [1] Sylvester rose to the position of deputy director for operations in the summer of 2023. [2] He replaced David Marlowe,who was hired in the Joe Biden administration. [2] In his position,Sylvester serves as head of the Directorate of Operations,thus being the leader of espionage for the agency. [2]
In February 2024,Sylvester appeared on the CIA's podcast,speaking publicly for the first time. [1] [2] There,he discussed the importance of human assets in espionage despite the "proliferation of cyberintelligence." [2]
On January 20,2025,Sylvester was named by President Donald Trump as the acting Director of the CIA. [3] [4] He was named the acting director as Trump's nominee for the position,John Ratcliffe,had not yet been confirmed by the Senate. [5] Ratcliffe was confirmed by the Senate on January 23,2025. [6]
The Cabinet of the United States is the principal official advisory body to the president of the United States. The Cabinet generally meets with the president in a room adjacent to the Oval Office in the West Wing of the White House. The president chairs the meetings but is not formally a member of the Cabinet. The vice president of the United States serves in the Cabinet by statute. The heads of departments,appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate,are members of the Cabinet,and acting department heads also participate in Cabinet meetings whether or not they have been officially nominated for Senate confirmation. Members of the Cabinet are political appointees and administratively operate their departments. As appointed officers heading federal agencies,these Cabinet Secretaries are bureaucrats with full administrative control over their respective departments. The president may designate heads of other agencies and non-Senate-confirmed members of the Executive Office of the President as members of the Cabinet.
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense (DoD),specializing in defense and military intelligence.
The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) is a cabinet-level United States government official and is the director of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The position required by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 to serve as executive head of the United States Intelligence Community (IC) and to direct and oversee the National Intelligence Program (NIP). All 18 IC agencies,including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA),the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA),report directly to the DNI.
John Edward McLaughlin is an American intelligence official who was Deputy Director of Central Intelligence and briefly acting Director of Central Intelligence. He is a Senior Fellow and Distinguished Practitioner-in-Residence at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) of the Johns Hopkins University.
The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) is a statutory office that functions as the head of the Central Intelligence Agency,which in turn is a part of the United States Intelligence Community.
Michael Vincent Hayden is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and former Director of the National Security Agency,Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence,and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He currently serves as a visiting professor at the George Mason University –Schar School of Policy and Government and co-chairs the Bipartisan Policy Center's Electric Grid Cyber Security Initiative.
The deputy director of the CIA for operations is a senior United States government official in the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency who serves as head of the Directorate of Operations. The position was established December 1,1950 and from January 4,1951,until March 1,1973,it was known as Deputy Director of Plans (DDP). When this unit was known as the Directorate of Plans,it at first accounted for about 75% of the CIA budget and about 60% of the personnel within the CIA.
Michael Joseph Morell is an American former career intelligence analyst. He was the deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2010 to 2013 and twice as its acting director,first in 2011 and then from 2012 to 2013. He is also a professor at the George Mason University - Schar School of Policy and Government.
Richard Allen Grenell is an American diplomat,public official,and former public relations consultant. He served as acting director of national intelligence (DNI) under President Donald Trump in 2020. A member of the Republican Party,Grenell served as the United States ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020 and as the special presidential envoy for Serbia and Kosovo peace negotiations from 2019 to 2021.
Avril Danica Haines is an American lawyer who served as the director of national intelligence in the Biden administration. She is the first woman to serve in this role. Haines previously was Deputy National Security Advisor and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment to the CIA,she was Deputy Counsel to the President for National Security Affairs in the Office of White House Counsel.
John Lee Ratcliffe is an American politician and attorney who has served as the ninth director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2025. He previously served as the sixth director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021 and served in the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2020.
William R. Evanina is an American national security official who served as director of the United States National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) until his January 2021 resignation. As director of the NCSC he was the head of national counterintelligence for the U.S. Government. Evanina previously served as director of the Office of the national counterintelligence executive (ONCIX) before it transitioned into the NCSC. Prior to his service as national counterintelligence executive,he was the chief of the Counterespionage Group for the Central Intelligence Agency. He gained his initial law enforcement experience as a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The second presidential transition of Donald Trump began when he won the United States presidential election on November 5,2024,and became the president-elect. Trump was formally elected by the Electoral College on December 17,2024. The results were certified by a joint session of Congress on January 6,2025,and the transition concluded when Trump was inaugurated on January 20,2025.
Donald Trump assumed office as the 45th president of the United States on January 20,2017,and his first term ended on January 20,2021. The president has the authority to nominate members of his Cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.
Gina Cheri Walker Haspel is an American intelligence officer who was the seventh director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from May 21,2018,to January 20,2021. She was the agency's deputy director from 2017 to 2018 under Mike Pompeo,and became acting director on April 26,2018,after Pompeo became U.S. secretary of state. She was later nominated and confirmed to the role,making her the first woman to become CIA director on a permanent basis.
Susan M. Gordon served as Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence until August 15,2019. Prior to assuming that role,she was the Deputy Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA),having assumed the position on January 1,2015. Before joining the NGA,she served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency's Information Operations Center and senior cyber adviser to the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Gordon worked for the CIA for over 25 years.
Lisa S. Dougherty Kenna is an American diplomat who has served as Executive Secretary of the United States Department of State since January 2025. She had served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Intelligence and Research from September 11,2023,to January 20,2025. She had served as the United States Ambassador to Peru from March 2021 to September 2023. She served as Acting Secretary of State for only a day,as Senator Marco Rubio was confirmed by the Senate on the day of her appointment,and was later sworn in on January 21,2025.
John Bradley Sherman is an American intelligence official who had served as the chief information officer at the Department of Defense from December 17,2021 to June 2024. Prior to that,he served from June 2020 to January 2021 as the Principal Deputy DOD Chief Information Officer. Between 2017 and 2020 he served as Associate Director and Chief Information Officer of the Intelligence Community (IC) at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Darrell M. Blocker is a former American intelligence officer who served for 28 years with the Central Intelligence Agency. He held prominent positions including deputy director of the Counterterrorism Center (CTC),Chief of Africa Division,and Chief of Training at Camp Peary,Virginia,better known as "The Farm". Within the intelligence community,Blocker was known for participating in a number of semi-professional musical ensembles during his postings abroad. He retired in 2018 as the most senior black officer in the CIA's Directorate of Operations. Since 2019 Blocker has been chief operating officer of intelligence and advisory firm MOSAIC,and a contributor for ABC News.
Donald Trump assumed office as the 47th president of the United States on January 20,2025. The president has the authority to nominate members of his cabinet to the United States Senate for confirmation under the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.